The Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC) is looking for two highly motivated PhD candidates to join a research group led by Dr. Natália da Silva Perez examining how European colonial expansion (1600–1900) influenced ideas about women’s work. This research project combines archival research and computational text analysis of ideas on gendered labour across different transimperial locales. If selected, you will carry your own PhD research as part of this collaborative research team, and will focus on one of the following historical cases:
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Pernambuco
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Atlantic Africa (for example, Senegambia, Gold Coast, or Angola)
Your PhD research will focus on one of the project’s historical cases to examine how women’s lived experiences conformed to, or diverged from, normative ideas about gendered labour circulating between colonies and European metropoles.
Your tasks will include:
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Contributing to building and curating multilingual, trans-imperial, diachronic datasets focused on historical evidence of women’s work (including handwritten and printed archival material)
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Using Transkribus for transcription of texts in Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, Spanish, and/or Danish (depending on your linguistic expertise) and conducting manual corrections of the transcription results
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Conducting qualitative analyses using interpretivist/social reproduction/intersectional approaches
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Conducting quantitative analyses using computational/digital humanities/statistical methods
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Presenting your research at conferences
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Publishing findings both as co-authored and single authored peer-reviewed articles as part of your article-based PhD dissertation
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Teaching at the history department.
Must-have requirements
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A (research) master’s degree in history, gender studies, digital humanities, or any other relevant area, completed by the start date
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Excellent knowledge of English for academic writing, presenting, and publishing
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Strong knowledge of at least one other language required for archival research and analysis related to your chosen historical case. Willingness to acquire skills in additional languages relevant to the project will be considered positively:
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Pernambuco: Portuguese, Dutch, and/or Spanish
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Atlantic Africa (for example, Senegambia, Gold Coast, or Angola): Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, and/or Danish
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Demonstrable interest in, or experience with, early modern/colonial history, gender history, and/or the relationship between the Colonial Atlantic and European metropoles
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Experience and enthusiasm working with computational/digital methods (such as handwritten text recognition, natural language processing, statistics, etc) or willing to acquire and develop your skills in these methods
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Strong analytical and academic writing skills, curiosity, and comfort with methodological experimentation
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Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary team
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Cultural sensitivity and reflexivity when working with archival material relating to enslaved and colonized peoples.
Nice-to-have:
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Working knowledge of any additional languages relevant to the project, or willingness to acquire skills in an additional language (among, for example, Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, Spanish, and/or Danish)
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Prior experience with archival/paleographic research, qualitative coding, corpus-based text analysis
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Familiarity with intersectionality, social reproductive theory, or interpretivist historical methods.
We offer you an internationally oriented and varied job in an enthusiastic team, with excellent working conditions in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU).
The start date of this position is 26-OCT-2026 (or thereafter upon agreement) and you will be based at [class.26087] in the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication (ESHCC). This position is full time for 1 fte. The salary ranges from a minimum of € 3.204 to a maximum of € 4.051 gross per month Scale PhD on a fulltime basis (38 hours), in accordance with the CAO-NU. The contract is entered into for the duration of one year (with option of extension for three more years upon positive assessment).
Everything else we offer you, you can find below!
- Everything you need for a good work-life balance: the option to work from home in consultation with your manager, 41 days of paid leave with a 40 hour contract, 8% holiday pay and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus, and a significant discount on a subscription for our on-campus sports centre!
- Sustainable, inclusive and diverse work environment with an open culture, where you can be yourself and we pay attention to each other and to the world around us. Make the most of our bicycle budget, or join networks such as Young@EUR, FAME or QuEUR.
- Time and space for your development in the broadest sense: development days and a personal career budget and free access to our university library.
- Good pension with ABP that EUR contributes 2/3rds towards, discounts on various collective insurances with Zilveren Kruis Achmea, Loyalis, and Allianz, and compensation for travel, working from home and home internet use.
- Are you currently combining your job with parenthood, or do you want to do so in the future? EUR offers partially paid parental leave and fully paid additional birth leave for partners, and our campus features a daycare (daycare not paid for by EUR).
- Moving to the Netherlands for your job with EUR? Then you may be eligible for the 30%-ruling if you meet the requirements of the Belastingdienst (Dutch tax agency), and with our Dual Career Programme we will also help your partner find the right job for them.
Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is an internationally oriented university with a strong social orientation in its education and research, as expressed in our mission ‘Creating positive societal impact’. EUR is home to 4.100 academics and professionals and almost 33.000 students from more than 140 countries. Everything we do, we do under the credo The Erasmian Way – Making Minds Matter. We’re global citizens, connecting, entrepreneurial, open-minded, and socially involved. These Erasmian Values function as our internal compass and create EUR’s distinctive and recognizable profile. From these values, with a broad perspective and with an eye for diversity, different backgrounds and opinions, our employees work closely together to solve societal challenges from the dynamic and cosmopolitan city of Rotterdam. Thanks to the high quality and positive societal impact of our research and education, EUR can compete with the top European universities. www.eur.nl.
The Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communicationl (ESHCC) is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. The school has three departments: History, Arts and Culture and Media and Communication.
ESHCC offers high quality education based on scientific research at the intersection of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our ambitious Dutch and international students are educated in a stimulating learning environment. Upon graduation, they have acquired the knowledge, insight and skills to make important and inspiring contributions to an increasingly international society in which diversity plays a major role.
The faculty offers three bachelor's programs and three master's programs with a total of seven specializations, as well as two Erasmus Mundus programs and a research master. Most programs are internationally oriented and taught in English.
ESHCC hosts the research institute Derius - Erasmus Research Institute for Media, Culture & History . Researchers at Derius are dedicated to conducting interdisciplinary research in the fields of media, communication, culture, history, and society. Our research agenda focuses on strengthening interdisciplinary research, increasing external funding, and enhancing our societal impact.
ESHCC is housed in the Van der Goot (M) Building on the Woudestein campus of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Approximately 2400 students study there, and there are 240 staff members.
Please submit your application by 20 September 2026 consisting of:
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Your CV
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An excerpt of your master's thesis (or alternatively, any other piece of academic writing engaging primary sources)
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A motivation letter of maximum 1200 words addressing the following points:
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Your general experience and how it relates to this project
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Your choice of historical case: either Pernambuco or Atlantic Africa
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Your explanation of why this historical case interests you
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Your relevant language skills for this historical case (beyond English)
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Two examples of archives you intend to consult to find primary sources related to your chosen historical case, and why you consider these archives important
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Your experience with (or openness to) computational/digital methods.
Interviews are expected to be held online in week 40 of 2026 (early October).
We look forward to receiving your application.
You can find more information about the EUR on our website www.eur.nl.
For more information about this vacancy, please contact Natália da Silva Perez via [email protected].
If you would like to know more about the recruiting process or about working at EUR in general, please contact our Corporate Recruiter Natascha Aerts-Hooi at [email protected].
Persons of all gender identities or expressions, sexual orientations, religions, ethnicities, ages, neurodiversities, functional impairments, citizenships, or any other aspect are welcome to apply and join the EUR community.
